Housing: How should Singapore’s Housing Development Board (HDB) Help Older People Monetise their Housing Assets and Age in Place?

Abstract

This case explores housing monetisation in the context of Singapore’s rapidly ageing resident population, and the consequent challenges of ensuring retirement adequacy for the elderly and future elderly. It explores the linkages between Singapore’s policies on home ownership and asset enhancement, long-term residential property price trends, and the tendency for many retiree households to be “asset rich but cash poor”. It also explores the benefits of helping the elderly to “age in place”, assesses the options available to help them monetise the asset value of their properties, and discusses how these options can be enhanced.